Quotes from book
What Is the What

Name: What Is the What
Author: Dave Eggers

What Is the What: The Autobiography of Valentino Achak Deng is a 2006 novel written by Dave Eggers. It is based on the life of Valentino Achak Deng, a Sudanese child refugee who immigrated to the United States under the Lost Boys of Sudan program. It was a finalist for the National Book Award.

“I will not wait to love as best as I can. We thought we were young and that there would be time to love well sometime in the future. This is a terrible way to think. It is no way to live, to wait to love.”

Dave Eggers book What Is the What

Variant: If I ever fall in love again, I will not wait to love as best as I can. We thought we were young and that there would be time to love well sometime in the future. This is a terrible way to think. It is no way to live, to wait to love.
Source: What is the What: The Autobiography of Valentino Achak Deng (2006), Ch. 21, pp. 317-318
Source: What Is the What
Context: I cannot count the times I have cursed our lack of urgency. If I ever love again, I will not wait to love as best as I can. We thought we were young and that there would be time to love well sometime in the future. This is a terrible way to think. It is no way to live, to wait to love.

“His lies were so exquisite I almost wept.”

Dave Eggers book What Is the What

Source: What Is the What

“When there is pleasure, there is often abandon, and mistakes are made.”

Dave Eggers book What Is the What

Source: What Is the What

“I had the sensation that I might always be running like this, that I would always have to run, and that I would always be able to run.”

Dave Eggers book What Is the What

Source: What Is the What

“Every part of my body felt electric. My chest ached and my head throbbed with the great terrible limitless possibility of the morning, and when it came, the sky was washed white, everything was new, and I hadn't slept at all.”

Dave Eggers book What Is the What

Source: What Is the What